Could you slaughter a chicken? It’s a question I’ve occasionally thought about, curious if I’d have the stomach to procure my own protein. Every so often, budding farmers at Pie Ranch in Pescadero, California just off Highway 1 will show you how, and offer some other lessons about food origins. Fresh local pie is the main draw at the 25-acre facility—which is, appropriately, shaped like two giant pie wedges—but budding farmers also grow and harvest many of the things you’d find on your table, from beef to wheat to butter and honey.

I was hardly the first person to pull over, drawn in by the large “PIE” signs a mile out (strictly on business, of course). Thousands of students, fruit buyers,